Apr. 14, 2017
11:05 am JST

Arrested was a 46 year old man who is(was) the Chairperson head of the PTA of the school. He also has a son and a daughter. (Source: Japanese TV News) This is one sick guy and if convicted, I hope those inside will take proper care of him.

Apr. 14, 2017
02:33 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
03:11 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
03:28 pm JST

The murder of an innocent child is a very emotive subject, most people would like a public lynching or some sort of cruel punishment, going down this route arnt we just as bad for taking someones life? can it be justified? I am sure some will say "how would you feel if some one murdered your child"? I just hope to god that it never happens, because I can't answer that to be honest. IF this guy is guilty I hope that he rots in prison, and I hope the the girls family have now a sense of closure.

Apr. 14, 2017
04:08 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
04:17 pm JST

She told a friend in school back in January that there was a scary person on the way to school. She said to her friend that she had begun to either run past that part, or to take another path to school. Now this story begins to make sense.

Apr. 14, 2017
04:19 pm JST

Well, they have published his name now, so they must have enough evidence to convict him of abandoning the body (a crazy Japanese thing). However, unless he confesses there is little chance they can charge him with the murder (another crazy Japanese thing). Let's hope he is man enough to confess and face his judgement for such a horrible crime.

Apr. 14, 2017
04:20 pm JST

His inmates will definitely take good care of him.

I wonder if child predation/abuse in Japan is looked down upon as much as it is in the States by other inmates. Typically, American child sex abusers need to placed in isolation away from other inmates because of the threat of violence.

Apr. 14, 2017
04:20 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
04:33 pm JST

Let's say they have the right person which I strongly suspect that they do. I wonder if the child's particular nationality or just not being Japanese was a reason for the man's infatuation with her. Being the head of the PTA and living so close to them, he would have definitely known about the child's background.

Apr. 14, 2017
04:47 pm JST

You have to consider that he might be covering up for someone else, but unwilling to speak about it. I floated this idea to my J wife but she laughed. "No way!" she said. "Look, they have his car and everything." Remaining silent sounds like a bad idea though.

Apr. 14, 2017
04:58 pm JST

They have DNA evidence. What I'm afraid of is that they'll only be able to nail the scumbag on improper disposal of a body. I hope at the very least the family and community have already distanced themselves from the guy and are starting too look into the people they start putting into such positions (and buddy up).

Apr. 14, 2017
05:09 pm JST

What I'm afraid of is that they'll only be able to nail the scumbag on improper disposal of a body.

I hope they get him to confess.

I hope at the very least the family and community have already distanced themselves from the guy

Unfortunately, for the family, there will definitely be blowback on them. It doesn't matter if they disown him or not. In Japan, the whole immediate family will feel the weight of this horrific situation in the community. Most likely, they will be forced to move. Hopefully, they won't feel pressured into taking their own lives. This is a time when counseling for the school and all the families directly connected is needed.

Apr. 14, 2017
05:29 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
06:49 pm JST

Some people are saying "if he is silent he is guilty" perhaps you should read up on Japanese police tactics. Even saying "I didn't do it" is acceptable as a confession in Japan. Police here force people to sign false confessions with the chance of suspended sentences. Once you are caught in Japan, even if innocent....you have like a 1% chance of being found innocent.

As for the girl, it doesn't take much of a brain to know what happened to her. This is Japan after all, a small 9 year old girl found near a river? She was obviously raped and dumped. This country is crawling with pedophiles.

Apr. 14, 2017
08:20 pm JST

"investigative sources said his DNA matched a sample collected by police in the grass field "

Was his DNA (of what sort? Hair, Blood, semen?) on the girl or just in the nearby general area? I mean that's gotta suck if you were just passing by the area unaware and somehow something happened and you left your DNA mark behind such as a strand of hair. Talk about bad luck.

But if his DNA was ON her then there should be plenty enough evidence to convict.

Apr. 14, 2017
09:10 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
09:57 pm JST

Some people are saying "if he is silent he is guilty" perhaps you should read up on Japanese police tactics. Even saying "I didn't do it" is acceptable as a confession in Japan. Police here force people to sign false confessions with the chance of suspended sentences. Once you are caught in Japan, even if innocent....you have like a 1% chance of being found innocent.

As for the girl, it doesn't take much of a brain to know what happened to her. This is Japan after all, a small 9 year old girl found near a river? She was obviously raped and dumped. This country is crawling with pedophiles

Shove that up your right wing ass Japan Today. It is crawling with pedophiles and you can't hide that by removing my comments. Almost daily I see news articles of pedophilia rapists touching children.

WHO ARE YOU PROTECTING? Maybe you're paid off by the J-Gov to keep Japan in the nice light?

I'll just keep posting this comment every time you remove it. THERE IS NOTHING VULGAR ABOUT IT.

Apr. 14, 2017
10:17 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
10:23 pm JST

@toshiko
This is disgusting. Are men hated in this way or thought incapable of engaging in the lives of children in a healthy way? Perhaps it is a particular prejudice that men are beasts? This makes everything worse. Here is not a typical person but a disgusting criminal - hopefully one in millions. Let's not disparage men with such hateful sexist prejudice. Please.

Apr. 14, 2017
10:25 pm JST

Apr. 14, 2017
10:38 pm JST

It's time to create a confidential database for all adults working/dealing with children. These adults need to submit fingerprints and DNA samples. Yes it could be considered "profiling" but could be a huge deterrent for any crime dealing with children. It's so necessary in Japan where regulations on child exploitation in any way, shape or form is so lax.

Apr. 14, 2017
11:06 pm JST

Apr. 15, 2017
12:04 am JST

toshiko: "PTA used to be about all were mothers. When a father comes, we used to joke he is looking for a new girl friend. It is different now. Children have to worry murderers."

Sorry, toshiko, but if you looked at the majority of children, especially infants, murdered by a parent in Japan these days it's the mother who does it. Sure, a lot of people blame it on a nine-year-delay of PPD or immediately defend the woman, but just to show how wrong you are... and also that you'd have us all go back to the stone ages in terms of gender equality. I suppose these PTA moms you think should bar the men from entering and helping out ought to not have jobs aside from being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?

Apr. 15, 2017
01:25 am JST

@yumster100 - It's the way Japanese laws works. Without a confession or witnesses he cannot be charged with killing her. He can only be charged with abandoning her body because that is the only evidence they have to connect him with her. He is looking at 3-5 years for abandoning the body, but life for her murder. That is why he is remaining silent and, there are no witnesses.

Apr. 15, 2017
04:14 am JST

Mike L, you are right, Innocent until the evidence suggests otherwise, but the border is getting thinner. Someone out there did it, and is still not caught. Through what was presented in the article, aside the disgust, I believe the fact that he was absent during his regular supervising will be as crucial as the DNA test. If he is trying to get away with it, he must be coming up with an alibi currently. When questioned properly, if responsible people find rends in his presumable alibi, he will be step closer to conviction. And then to imagine the family, the children, after they get to hear what a blighted scum their father is. It must never happened, it must have never happened. Alas, it seems rather elaborate and ..."sophisticated" at this point.

Apr. 15, 2017
07:51 am JST

This is disgusting. Are men hated in this way or thought incapable of engaging in the lives of children in a healthy way? Let's not disparage men with such hateful sexist prejudice. Please.

She said "used to be all about mothers". You should know by now that the previous generation of Japanese fathers of young children were mostly known for not helping in child rearing. Yes, today's generation of fathers have improved and put family first including attending all school events. Unfortunately this type of guy kind of puts a strike against fathers even the good ones just like when people judges a whole ethnicity by the acts of a few.

Apr. 15, 2017
08:27 am JST

Disillusioned,
"It's the way Japanese laws works. Without a confession or witnesses he cannot be charged with killing her. He can only be charged with abandoning her body"

Then how do you account for the Kijima case, in which the accused received the death penalty? Apparently the law doesn't necessarily work the way you think it does. As stated in another article on this site today:

"Kijima was convicted without the witness testimony or confession often relied upon in Japanese prosecutions."

Apr. 15, 2017
09:34 am JST

Apr. 15, 2017
10:11 am JST

There is a high probability the crime was committed inside the "camping car" owned by the suspect, Shibuya. If Police find DNA belonging to the victim inside this vehicle, then that will be damning evidence indeed.

Despite these damaging reports about Japanese police force including the confession of a Japanese prosecutor that supports my claim, let's all hope they actually caught the true culprit, and he spends a longtime in prison because if he is actually innocent, the police my force him to make a false confession like reported in these articles.

Apr. 15, 2017
03:09 pm JST

@Diss,

Well, they have published his name now, so they must have enough evidence to convict him of abandoning the body (a crazy Japanese thing). However, unless he confesses there is little chance they can charge him with the murder (another crazy Japanese thing). Let's hope he is man enough to confess and face his judgement for such a horrible crime.

"School PTA head arrested over murder of 9-year-old Vietnamese girl in Chiba"

Apr. 15, 2017
04:24 pm JST

Japan has a high conviction rate because Japan has low prosecution rate among the arrested. The prosecutors indict only when they are confident to win.

Really??? because the following reports prove otherwise:

The reports don't prove that prosecutors here don't only indict when they are confident of a conviction. You would need to show that a high number of those arrested are also prosecuted to disprove Tina's comment.

This time she is actually half right. One of the reasons for the high conviction rate here is that they don't prosecute if they don't think they can convict. There are other reasons as well however, one being that the police have been known to force confessions here, and the fact that they can hold you for three weeks without charges makes people more likely to confess just to get out of jail.

Apr. 15, 2017
09:04 pm JST

Apr. 16, 2017
01:27 am JST

This is a horific act, and were I the Parent involved, I would be wishing to slowly castrate the accussed before dealing the final due justice personally. However, before doing so, I would like to be 200% sure that this was indeed the right person.
We all know, from Stories here, that the Japanese Judicial system, starting with the Police, can be manipulative. Whats important is to get the facts laid out on the table, without any ambiguity, and to put it to all involved, the consequences of an incorrect judgement.

Apr. 16, 2017
03:49 am JST

Apr. 16, 2017
12:43 pm JST

It is a huge relief to have found the obviously mentally ill man who committed this heinous crime (if he really is the correct person).

REGARDLESS of race (it could just as well have been someone other than Japanese), sadly this kind of crime occurs all too frequently in EVERY country in the world, especially young children being sexually assaulted (which may have possibly happened but not disclosed) and sadly in some cases killed after the perpetrator sexually assaulted their victim.

As unpleasant as this topic is, the public should be informed about the details (such as where the DNA sample was taken) of what the authorities uncovered.

Apr. 16, 2017
04:00 pm JST

I am Vietnamese and the mother of victim said differently in the video I watched. She said " It is unbelievable that the culprit looks very kind and do volunteer work but the way of killing is so brutal. Now i do not know to believe in whom"

Apr. 17, 2017
08:08 am JST

Support the death sentence 100% and I hope if this guy is guilty, they hand him this, as a father I cannot believe this guy did this to a 9 year old when he has kids of his own going to the same school.

After the murder, Shibuya, as head of the parents group, had been collecting donations to help Linh’s family return to Vietnam for the funeral of their daughter, according to school sources.

My view on this is it was a racist attack.

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